Today Norman Felton is 99
Today is a fandom holiday of sorts for MFU. It's Norman Felton's birthday. He's 99!
Norman, of course, was the person who first conceived MFU. Fleming's involvement (for a short time) got the project sold, Sam Rolfe developed it, but it was Norman who had the original idea.
Over the decades, in print interviews and during public appearances, Norman has been asked to recount the history of the series a number of times. Whenever he does, he usually begins the story with a particular incident. Although a few of the details vary with each re-telling the overall gist is this: Sometime in the early 1960s (probably 1962), Felton traveled to England in order to sell "Dr. Kildare" and "The Eleventh Hour," two series made by his Arena Productions, to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). A female BBC comptroller (previously called “Mrs. Worthington” but finally identified by Felton at the October, 1995 Spycon as Joanna Spicer) asked him rather accusingly, “Why must the leads in your American series always be big, tall, and muscular? And why do the heroes always have to be American and the villains from other countries?”
These questions made a strong impression upon the producer. Later, as he noted the television series his children were watching, he found they portrayed what he called, a "distorted view of heroism." The heroes were always American with a physical appearance that emphasized tall, muscular, sexy men. In a letter to Lloyd “Skippy” Shearer of "Parade" magazine, Felton said he found himself "resenting the idea that heroes had to be almost uniformly pictured this way. [I] pondered the possibility of a hero who would be intelligent, not massive in size, witty and interesting."
Of course, by the 1960s, Felton had enjoyed a long, successful career in broadcasting, both in radio and then on television. He’d served as CBS West Coast Director of Programming just before leaving to start an independent production company at MGM. Subsequently, his Arena Productions company was responsible for several television hits for the studio, most notably, Dr. Kildare. All these series were realistic dramas featuring professionals tackling social and personal problems. Now, however, Felton was personally ready for a change of pace. He wanted to do something different, something fun, “an escapist adventure without the formula of casting those big, sexy leads" As he remembers it:
I felt the need for a change of pace and subject matter; after all, I told myself, you’ve developed programs concerned with lawyers, physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, and even the experience of a young Marine Corps officer. Therefore, I began to seek a new area for stories not involved with ‘professionals’ we might encounter in our daily lives but rather related to people who might be ‘experts’ in most unusual trades.
Fortunately, because of the precarious state of television in that time period, the networks were also looking for innovative ideas. So, one morning near the end of October 1962, Felton found himself traveling to a breakfast meeting with agents from an ad agency and the Ford Motor Company. They wanted to sponsor a show that would exploit the popular success of the first Bond film and perhaps base it on Fleming's recent travel book, "Thrilling Cities."
As Felton was traveling to the meeting, he began to think about "fresh ways to make a thriller ... one which would involve innocent people with some kind of professionals."
He didn't think "Thrilling Cities" was good material for a series, but after the breakfast portion of the meeting, Norman began to improvise a pitch.
Pointing to the padded door that led to the adjoining suite, Felton lowered his voice conspiratorially and asked everyone present if they knew who was staying there. When they said no, he told them. This "mysterious man" was a successful novelist who wrote under a pseudonym, but actually undertook sensitive assignments and answered only to the Secretary General of the United Nations. The assignments involved solving problems of international importance, "activities that concerned the welfare of people of all nationalities," and that this adventurer "worked secretly to overcome evil." Then Felton shrugged and added that what he’d heard, of course, was always denied and might not even be true.
At first, the agents were puzzled, but soon they caught on. Realizing it was a pitch, they encouraged Felton to go on. He did. Drawing from the various conscious and subconscious influences discussed earlier, the producer began to describe someone who was not a big man, but slight in appearance. He was witty, charming, quick thinking, and extraordinarily intelligent. The man was Canadian by birth although his father was an American. The parents had worked on the staff of the Hotel Frontenac. The father was an electrician; the mother, a cook. Further, the man had been educated in Canada, although he had wrangled a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. Afterward, he’d been recruited to perform dangerous assignments, like rescuing undercover agents.
That was enough for the agents. They said they loved the sophistication and spirit of adventure and wondered if they could bring Ian Fleming into the project (which they subsequently did, at least for a short time.)
And as they say, the rest is history.
Thank you, Norman Felton! We all wouldn't be here without you.
Norman, of course, was the person who first conceived MFU. Fleming's involvement (for a short time) got the project sold, Sam Rolfe developed it, but it was Norman who had the original idea.
Over the decades, in print interviews and during public appearances, Norman has been asked to recount the history of the series a number of times. Whenever he does, he usually begins the story with a particular incident. Although a few of the details vary with each re-telling the overall gist is this: Sometime in the early 1960s (probably 1962), Felton traveled to England in order to sell "Dr. Kildare" and "The Eleventh Hour," two series made by his Arena Productions, to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). A female BBC comptroller (previously called “Mrs. Worthington” but finally identified by Felton at the October, 1995 Spycon as Joanna Spicer) asked him rather accusingly, “Why must the leads in your American series always be big, tall, and muscular? And why do the heroes always have to be American and the villains from other countries?”
These questions made a strong impression upon the producer. Later, as he noted the television series his children were watching, he found they portrayed what he called, a "distorted view of heroism." The heroes were always American with a physical appearance that emphasized tall, muscular, sexy men. In a letter to Lloyd “Skippy” Shearer of "Parade" magazine, Felton said he found himself "resenting the idea that heroes had to be almost uniformly pictured this way. [I] pondered the possibility of a hero who would be intelligent, not massive in size, witty and interesting."
Of course, by the 1960s, Felton had enjoyed a long, successful career in broadcasting, both in radio and then on television. He’d served as CBS West Coast Director of Programming just before leaving to start an independent production company at MGM. Subsequently, his Arena Productions company was responsible for several television hits for the studio, most notably, Dr. Kildare. All these series were realistic dramas featuring professionals tackling social and personal problems. Now, however, Felton was personally ready for a change of pace. He wanted to do something different, something fun, “an escapist adventure without the formula of casting those big, sexy leads" As he remembers it:
I felt the need for a change of pace and subject matter; after all, I told myself, you’ve developed programs concerned with lawyers, physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, and even the experience of a young Marine Corps officer. Therefore, I began to seek a new area for stories not involved with ‘professionals’ we might encounter in our daily lives but rather related to people who might be ‘experts’ in most unusual trades.
Fortunately, because of the precarious state of television in that time period, the networks were also looking for innovative ideas. So, one morning near the end of October 1962, Felton found himself traveling to a breakfast meeting with agents from an ad agency and the Ford Motor Company. They wanted to sponsor a show that would exploit the popular success of the first Bond film and perhaps base it on Fleming's recent travel book, "Thrilling Cities."
As Felton was traveling to the meeting, he began to think about "fresh ways to make a thriller ... one which would involve innocent people with some kind of professionals."
He didn't think "Thrilling Cities" was good material for a series, but after the breakfast portion of the meeting, Norman began to improvise a pitch.
Pointing to the padded door that led to the adjoining suite, Felton lowered his voice conspiratorially and asked everyone present if they knew who was staying there. When they said no, he told them. This "mysterious man" was a successful novelist who wrote under a pseudonym, but actually undertook sensitive assignments and answered only to the Secretary General of the United Nations. The assignments involved solving problems of international importance, "activities that concerned the welfare of people of all nationalities," and that this adventurer "worked secretly to overcome evil." Then Felton shrugged and added that what he’d heard, of course, was always denied and might not even be true.
At first, the agents were puzzled, but soon they caught on. Realizing it was a pitch, they encouraged Felton to go on. He did. Drawing from the various conscious and subconscious influences discussed earlier, the producer began to describe someone who was not a big man, but slight in appearance. He was witty, charming, quick thinking, and extraordinarily intelligent. The man was Canadian by birth although his father was an American. The parents had worked on the staff of the Hotel Frontenac. The father was an electrician; the mother, a cook. Further, the man had been educated in Canada, although he had wrangled a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. Afterward, he’d been recruited to perform dangerous assignments, like rescuing undercover agents.
That was enough for the agents. They said they loved the sophistication and spirit of adventure and wondered if they could bring Ian Fleming into the project (which they subsequently did, at least for a short time.)
And as they say, the rest is history.
Thank you, Norman Felton! We all wouldn't be here without you.